music is even starker as the nature modern life and the volume of accessible media dictates that this exposure is, in essence is everywhere, Students come into college now having been immersed in pop culture since they were born. It's what they know -- it's practically what they breathe.'' Simon Firth reiterates this in a musical context declaring, the sheer loudness of contemporary Popular Music as it competes with noise in our soundscape. Traditionally pop music was and is still seen as a product for the lower classes; not worthy of social status, let alone study and is frequently referred to as being Normative. In opposition Classical music is then deemed intellectual, high brow, elitist and the fodder for the upper classes, with Popular Music referred to in the terms of the Negative of Classical i.e. what Classical is not! There is some evidence that this trend is however changing, Many people talk as if classical music is in its essence an art and pop music in its essence, nothing but music created to make money. Neither of these statements is completely true, plenty of classical music has been commercial and plenty of pop has been created with no regard for money. Can we prove this seed shift in musical academia is not only happening with regards to established music studies but also in Cultural & Social areas. In a 1997 review of Neil Nehrings book Popular Music, Gender, and Postmodernism Chris Foran wrote Rock music is at its heart a music of passion, spontaneity, fire. So why is it that many academics and music journalists dismiss the political and social value of emotion in Popular Music? . I would argue that Foran is wrong in that assumption? In that same year a Stamford University Online Report titled Rock & Roll: Does it Influence Teens Behaviour? used the book It's Not Only Rock & Roll as its reference point. The book in question draws its raw material from a senate report, which was concerned about the influences o...
